The Blunderwood Portable was a project built in the summer of 2015 by the Cat and the Cockroach Collective, a group of Boston-based artists and ne'er-do-wells. Inspired by the 100-year-old works of Don Marquis, we brought the experiences of his character Archy, a free verse poet reincarnated as a typewriting cockroach, to life.

With funding from Burning Man, individual donations, and a successful Kickstarter campaign we built a giant 24:1 scale replica of a 1927 Underwood Portable typewriter. During the day, we displayed sections of a giant Archy and Mehitabel poem in the paper tray. At night, the paper was changed to a projection screen so that participants could type their own messages. The project was burned at the conclusion of Burning Man.